There's not a ton of content with this and the story is pretty meh, but I think this is a good step in the right direction for open world games much like how Arkham Asylum was when it first came out. The Nemesis System is a pretty cool idea, although I don't feel as if it was totally flushed out in this game to it's fullest. I'm hoping for more on screen characters in the next one with armies actually clashing and being able to control your horde against your rivals horde and being in the thick of it as well. I would much rather have RTS controls for the captains and warchiefs you control rather than the chess like system they have now. Seems like it would be much more interesting to control multiple Uruk leaders into attacking and laying siege against the enemy rather than just working up the ranks.

I'm not feeling it particularly, I just feel lost and confused most of the time, like no idea what will actually help me out. I'm also finding that it's hard to know which missions I'm 'ready' for and which I need to upgrade for. I'm also finding it hard to get intel from any one orc, I end up killing them by accident.

What whiner I am.

I'm not completely disappointed, but i had major problems with it.

First the story. As with Watch Dogs, killing off family members of the protagonist at the start doesn't make me sympatethic to him in the slightest. It's actually becoming off-putting. But the characters in general were not interesting to me. The antagonist weren't developed at all (still know nothing about the hand of sauron), as the rest of the supporting cast (queen and daughter:meh, soldier and slaves:still meh; dwarf hunter:another meh, only ratbag was somewhat funny); i understand that through the nemesis system you should have many actual antagonists randomly generated, but i died only three times to orcs and immediately went on revenge so i had no such experience of memorable orc enemies. After a while they all seemed the same to me. I only remember an orc i ascended to warchief position because i liked his setup. When the game presented me with my "nemesis" i had no clue who he was, just some random orc with metal patches on his head declaring he burned 15 men because i set him on fire sometimes prior

This bring me to the second problem i had. Even before the final parts where you're an overpowered, unstoppable killing/converting machine (i managed to dominate all the orc roster on the second map rapidly just for fun, and it autocompleted the objective of converting the warchiefs, even tho one spot in the captains ranks was always empty :( i wanted all to be blue! :D), escaping if the situation is becoming difficult is so freaking easy. On open fields you're always a few meters away from plants, and in strongholds the orcs don't have the same agility as you so you can easily jump away and hide on a roof. The only time i had to retry missions was in a few of the "avoid detection" ones, and even that was because i found some bugs in detection between sets of walls.

The third major issue for me were the final missions. The tower was badly implemented, the encounter was not interesting for me; about my "nemesis" i've already spoken; the five talons were just butchered by my orcs (i only managed to have a "conversation" with three of them, the 2nd and the 4th were before i could even cross swords with them); the final QTE was a joke, i expected a boss fight instead.

Fourth: i completed it 100%, but there is no reward for getting all collectibles, and the reward for completing all the slave missions is kind of ridiculous.

In short: story and characterization not interesting for me; the nemesis system failed to provide me memorable enemies; too easy to avoid dying at the hands of the orcs; the final parts were disappointing; no rewards for collectibles hunt.

I played it to completion so it has that for it, but it was akin to a dinasty warrior game with arkham combat for me, mindlessy slaughtering orcs whitout needing to focus too much.

I just finished the game yesterday. I was REALLY not impressed by what I had seen of it before release. Esp watching the lets play on Gamespot. The main char attack animations are pretty stilted. Graphics are ok, not great, least the world itself. The chars actually look pretty good. I really hated how boxy everything in the game was. It was so inorganic, and PS2 era. Almost all the cliff walls were flat as can be. They looked carved out like a rock quarry. Half the set items were so square or rectangular they would fit perfectly in a box. Really broke immersion for me. It was like they updated some REALLY old ass assets.

I warmed up to it, but still not a amazing game by any means. Im baffled by the praise its gotten. Its really about a 7 or 3 stars. The Nemesis system was a pretty novel way to add a twist to side missions. It does deserve some credit for a well thought out and updated way to making side missions a more personal experience. That has been a stagnet area in gaming for far too long.

But they beat it to death. SoM used it to cover 3/4 of all the missions. Calling half of those main story missions. There wasnt a lot of actual game there. Fuck it wasnt annoying as hell when you were in a group of more then 2 named chars. Do I really need the fight stopped 3-4x? So I can have them each shout something completely fucking stupid in my face as Im about to land the killing blow to the guy Im actually there to kill? Last two main missions were pretty awful to boot. Second to last boss fight felt really lazy. Its anticlimactic to make a huge part of the game building a army, build it up more by making an issue of traveling by sea, only to have a small fight, then leave.